crafting community 2013 highlights + tote giveaway! - closed
i am still blissed out from my time at
last week. it is uncommon in our society to gather at a shared place and time with a vision of family, discovery, and kinship. crafting community realized this very vision over a weekend in the desert.
as soon as we entered the
parking lot it was if a neon colored bubble surrounded us and we were under the protection of this new world order. there was a busy hum as families formed new friendships and rekindled old ones. as the evening fell, a magic spell took hold of everyone and people wandered freely from table to table making connections. this set the tone for a weekend of unprecedented (for me) creativity and fun with my children.
honestly, i spent more time immersed in the activities, in the water, in the conversations and less documenting it. but here are some highlights...
first off, waking up to these two excited beings every morning.
then, after a lovely al fresco buffet breakfast (lollipop pancakes anyone?) we headed straight for the pool. i am quite sure all the mothers (and maybe even some older children) wanted to head straight to the amazing workshops led by
,
,
,
, and
among others. but a four year old? she wasn't having it so i surrendered and we played imagination games in the pool. i skipped the underwater photography workshop (yes, there was an underwater photography workshop) and used my
to take some warped, lovely photos of our pool time. elodie got out of the pool just long enough for an honest tea sno-cone. yum!
then i could officially say it was my turn and we headed to the workshops. once we were there elodie was so excited and made a beeline to a table where children were making brightly colored fobs. i waited patiently before heading over to the splendid table to make an ojo de dios.
it was such an honor to meet
and to hear how he empowers people to grow their own food, i left a conversation with him so inspired. listen to his ted talk
.
elodie and i both loved
's tassels. i think i could have stayed at her table the entire time.
wearing my fun necklace from cathy callahan, we headed over to make tie dye towels with
. what a cool guy.
helped us make pretty veggie stamped tea towels. i have been using mine every day in the kitchen.
the family crest workshop taught by
was truly satisfying. choosing symbols for our family and stamping our names in leather was so fun. i'm still working on mine.
it was a pleasure to have a bit of time to chat with
and to have her help me make a sweet bracelet for elodie.
i don't know of a time when i've had so much access to such talented artisans and inspiring figures. the environment was easy and relaxed and the only agenda was to be with the family and create.
it was a bit ridiculous all the pretty things you could make. need a snack? head to the snack table. need a drink? no problem, water and drinks by
. need a little place to just play and rest?
hosted a cute little play area that francesca and elodie both loved.
there was a whole fitness component that i didn't really get to experience because my husband wasn't with me and francesca was too small. i was jealous of my friends doing early morning spin and yoga. hopefully next year i'll be able to participate!
i still feel like this is the tip of the iceberg. the amazing thing about
is that if you rewound the weekend and started over you could have a completely different experience visiting different workshops and encountering different people. i wish i could experience this weekend a few more times. the energy was positive and electric. children have the tendency to do this for us. help us let our guard down which opens us to new levels of creation. my biggest question is how can we bottle this positive energy and take it back into our daily lives?
and for
the littlest
readers, crafting community is giving away one of their amazing totes filled with fun items from
,
,
,
,
,
,
(and much, much more!)
the winner of this contest has been contacted via email. thank you so much for all of your entries. i wish i could have picked more than one!
since my husband checked into the hotel first with the girls i didn't get to actually see the bag in all of it's glory. elodie was knee deep in goodies by the time i got to the room. i'm actually kind of envious that one of you will be able to slowly go through all the good things inside. i'm particularly proud of a special playbook that i created with
filled with mad libs, games, and imaginative coloring pages. i can't wait to see it filled with all of elodie's ideas.
